Unsettled: what will happen to EU nationals who don’t sort out their status in time?

The
UK’s departure from the EU on January 31st
2020 has intensified the concern of rights groups for the estimated
900,000 EU nationals
yet to secure their status through the Home Office’s settled status
scheme.

The
government has rejected calls
for a declaratory registration scheme,
which would have automatically granted settled status to eligible
residents. As a result some people have had to submit large amounts
of evidence to prove their right to stay.

The
effect has been to deter many EU citizens living in the UK from
applying for settled or pre-settled status. Meanwhile some
applicants, including people with criminal convictions and the
non-EEA family members of EU nationals, are waiting for more than six
months for a decision on their application.

The
Home Office has been boasting
about the ‘success’ of the settled-status scheme and the funding
it has given to voluntary-sector organisations to help ‘vulnerable’
people apply. It has issued statistics
claiming that only seven people have been refused under the scheme.

As
for voluntary-sector funding—this is due to end in March 2020. The
Home Office has not confirmed whether it will be renewed. Charities
and law centres face having to lay off staff as a result of the
uncertainty, which could have a knock-on effect in terms of the
support available between now and the application deadline in June
2021.

Recent
estimates
suggest 12% of EU citizens living in the UK are still to apply to the
scheme. The true number is likely to be higher because there has
until now been no requirement that EU nationals register their
presence.

The
clock is ticking for people with unresolved status and the government
has not announced what will happen to those who don’t apply in
time. Home Office minister Brandon Lewis suggested in October 2019
that they could
face deportation.
(The prime minister’s office later said that such people would
not ‘automatically’ be deported
but gave no further information about the government’s plans.)

A ‘hostile environment’ for EU citizens

In
theory, the rights of EU citizens living in the UK remain
unchanged
during the Brexit transition period, which runs until the end of
December 2020. However there is already anecdotal evidence of
employers demanding evidence of settled status from job applicants.
Europeans arriving at the UK border are being asked why
they are here and how long they intend to stay.

The government has said nothing about post-transition protections for ‘vulnerable’ EU citizens. This is despite evidence that homeless people, those with mental issues, older people and care leavers face barriers to securing their right to remain in the UK.

The
Home Office has also refused to issue identity cards to people
granted settled status. This raises the prospect of a Windrush-style
scenario in which not only EU citizens who fail to apply in time but
also those who have lost access to proof of their settled status
could be denied essential services or even removed from the UK. Such
people could effectively become undocumented, losing the right to
employment, housing
assistance
and benefits
as well as access to the NHS.

Street-homeless
EU citizens are overrepresented among those still to apply for
settled status. This is partly because of the practical barriers they
face in accessing the scheme, including the difficulty of holding
onto identity documents while on the streets.

For
homeless EU nationals, deportation is no abstract threat. Between
2010 and 2017, the Home Office, local authorities and some
homelessness charities worked together to ‘administratively remove’
EU rough sleepers until the policy was declared
unlawful
in the High Court. Immigration detention centres saw a spike in
numbers of EU citizens, with catastrophic
results.

The government’s new immigration policy, announced last week, seeks simultaneously to make an offer of employment a condition of immigration to the UK and to erode the rights of migrant workers. Migration from the EU will, of course, continue: restrictive immigration policies do not prevent immigration—they simply make life much more difficult for working-class and racialized migrants.

Migrant
solidarity in the UK has long been a rearguard action, and the
field of struggle is about to expand. EU citizens who have made their
lives here have been political targets for years. Disaster
nationalism has now mandated a direct attack on their
rights.

SUPPORT OUR WORK

On reaching the UK, people face a hostile environment. Without help, many will be forcibly sent back to the wars, persecution and misery they have fled.

Your donation will help us to help people in their struggle for the right to remain in the UK, and to campaign for migration justice

Subscribe to our newsletter

Don’t miss any of our latest news!

Sign up to get our newsletter, and you can choose to receive our standard newsletter and/or our legal newsletter, which has our latest legal updates blog posts and any changes to the online version of the Right to Remain Toolkit.

Privacy & Cookies: This site uses cookies. By continuing to use this website, you agree to their use.
To find out more, including how to control cookies, see here:
Cookie Policy

Support our work

When people reach the UK, the struggle isn’t over. It's a hostile environment. Right to Remain relies on grants from charitable trusts and on donations from people like you. Your donation will help us to help people in their struggles for the right to remain in the UK, and to campaign for migration justice.

Contact

About us

Right to Remain works with communities, groups and organisations across the UK, providing information, resources, training and assistance to help people to establish their right to remain, and to challenge injustice in the immigration and asylum system.